Blogs and Commentary

Will Yeatman Signs With New England Patriots; Former PSUer
Hogan to San Francisco

Bill Belichick, lacrosse aficionado, couldn't stop himself.

Will Yeatman, the former Maryland lacrosse and football player,
has signed a free agent contract with the NFL's New England
Patriots.

"Long one yesterday but figured out where the best fit for me
was. Excited to sign with this great team and organization today,"
Yeatman tweeted around 9 a.m. Tuesday.

"Alright people I guess the word is out. I'm a New England
Patriot!" Yeatman wrote an hour later.

For those who are shocked — shocked! — at this
happening, do not be. We pontificated on the possibility of
Yeatman being drafted by the Patriots in April, given Belichick's
connections to lacrosse and my suspicion that the coach would love
to get Yeatman into a training camp, if not for nothing else than
to toss a lacrosse ball around before or after or, heck, during
sessions.

Yeatman, at 6-foot-6, 268 pounds, played 11 games on the
Maryland football last season as a tight end. Some scouts have said
he could play offensive tackle in the NFL.

Belichick played lacrosse in college at Wesleyan. His son,
Stephen, was a senior defenseman at Rutgers this spring and his
daughter, Amanda, completed her first season as an assistant coach
at Ohio State this year.

Also, before arriving at Maryland and playing lacrosse and
football, Yeatman played football at Notre Dame for former
Belichick assistant, coach Charlie Weis. Before that, Yeatman was a
two-time US Lacrosse All-American at Rancho Bernardo (Calif.).

We didn't get it all right back in April. Yeatman wasn't
drafted, the NFL owners locked its players out, and undrafted free
agents couldn't be signed until Tuesday. Thus the news of Yeatman
joining up with New England now.

And he's not the only former laxer to be signed by an NFL
team.

Former Penn State midfielder Chris Hogan signed with the San Francisco
49ers. Hogan decided to not use his final year of NCAA
eligiblity at Penn State, and instead played football for a year as
a wideout and cornerback at Monmouth in New Jersey.

Hogan has been timed at 4.47 seconds in the 40-yard dash (at a
pro day at Fordham last March). He's 6-foot-2, 220 pounds and was a
star football player at Ramapo High. He was the school's
all-time leader in receptions and had college scholarship offers to
play football.